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Saturday, September 11, 2010

The media's coverage of the 9th anniversary of the Muslim murder of 3,000 people was overshadowed by their panicked coverage of the possibility that Terry Jones, the pastor of a tiny Florida church, might actually burn the Koran. Last week Newsweek ran Fareed Zakaria's piece insisting that Americans overreacted to 9/11. So instead the media showed us where their priorities lie, by shortchanging the dead, ignoring their killers and instead turning the pastor of a small Florida church into a villain for even talking about the possibility of torching a book, whose contents helped inspire 9/11. It's as if on Holocaust Memorial Day, the key topic of discussion was not the murder of 6,000,000 Jews, but a protester who wanted to get his Bic lighter close to Mein Kampf.

In the weeks leading up to the anniversary, the media had been sanctimoniously lecturing Americans that their sensitivities regarding Ground Zero were irrelevant in the face of a Muslim desire to put up a massive and completely unnecessary Islamic complex in the area. Constitutional freedoms, real or imagined, trumped any sensitivities. But when a Gainesville pastor proposed returning a couple of copies of the Koran back to the environment by way of lighter fluid, suddenly freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and all that other stuff created by dead white men before the age of Walter Kronkite and CNN, were irrelevant in face of Muslim sensitivities.

Time Magazine and USA Today both ran polls asking whether burning the Koran should be criminalized as a hate crime. CNN gave a forum to a Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri to argue that burning a Koran would have been worse than 9/11 and warned that such actions "should be stopped by the U.S. government at any cost". Now Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri shows in his article that while he may not know the difference between "principal" and "principle", or "ensure" and "insure", he understands exactly how to push for the imposition of the horrifying barbarity of Islamic Sharia law in America.

In Dr. Qadri's own words: "any act of an individual or group which... hurts the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslim should be stopped at any cost." There are no details of just what "any cost" would imply, but certainly Dr. Qadri argues that Freedom of Speech cannot be used to protect anything that offends Muslims. And since just about everything from eating on Ramadan to liquor in taxi cabs to ice cream cones that look like Allah, has been known to offend Muslims, that means for September 11 you can kiss freedom goodbye. Or risk offending 1.5 billion Muslims. And we know what happens every time you offend the peaceful worshipers of the Religion of Peace. Riots, murder, terrorism and of course burning the American flag.

The same media which has consistently opposed a Constitutional amendment that bans flag burning (generally because they tend to agree with the flag burners), has now decided that burning the Koran should be a crime. Because burning the flag or killing thousands of Americans is no big deal-- but burning a Koran, someone should make a law about that.

Given a choice between burning the US Constitution or burning the Koran-- the media happily raises a lighter to the First Amendment. To them nothing American is sacred, but everything Islamic is.

Their defense of the Ground Zero Mosque was never about the Constitution. It was about kowtowing to the morally superior victims of American imperialism, starving in Dubai or Islamabad. If it helps them make their case to the people they think of as "The Great Unwashed", still clinging to their guns and religion, they will invoke the Constitution or the Magna Carta or an instruction manual from IKEA. From Obama on down, centuries of ideas about self-government are nothing but toys that they keep in the attic and bring out whenever particularly dull company comes over. They don't believe in self-government themselves. That is something they have in common with their brethren ruling with an iron fist beneath the sickle and hammer, or the crescent and star. Ideas, not the referendum or a national legacy of rights and responsibilities, are their source of political power. What the people and the law have to say about it, doesn't matter.

And so we come down to the ugly choice. Burning the Koran or burning the Constitution. The left has already made its choice. You can walk down the streets of Europe's greatest cities and see what remains of centuries of national struggle, republican ambitions and millions dying so that their language and their culture might have the shelter of a nation of their own. Now America is being presented with the same option. Touch your head to the floor or risk offending 1.5 billion Muslims. And what is the value of freedom compared to the feelings of a bunch of followers of Mohammed, with a long string of zeroes trailing after them around the globe.

It isn't about whether burning someone else's sacred book is right or wrong. To appease Muslim sensitivities, the US military burned a large number of Christian bibles last year. The same media which is panting breathlessly at the notion that anybody would dare use a holy book for kindling, smiled approvingly then. Because the issue isn't about burning anyone's holy books, but offending Muslims. That is the one law we are left with, after all the others have been tossed into the fire. Thou Shalt Not Enrage the Mohammedan.

What offends Muslims is anyone who disobeys their laws. And if our laws are to always defer to their sensitivities, then that means we have replaced the United States Constitution... with the Koran.

The media has put on a show of being concerned about US troops as outraged murderous members of the Religion of Peace might try to kill US soldiers in the full fury of their peacefulness, but if the media hadn't focused attention on the story, how would all those peaceful bearded types in Pakistan have even known about the Koran burning? In 2005, Newsweek falsely reported that American personnel in Gitmo had flushed a Koran. There was no actual truth to the report, but still 15 people died in the rioting. Yet the smug blond talking head on CNN who berated Terry Jones for "having blood on his hands", did not accuse Newsweek of having blood on their hands, even though they actually did. Just as there are no "blood on their hands" accusations for the media outlets who broadcast the heavily edited Wikileaks tape, or any of the Bin Laden videos, or leaked sensitive information about US military operation.

Dead US soldiers, like the Constitution, are only of interest when they're a handy talking point. If dead US soldiers were of interest to the media or General Petraeus, perhaps there might be some interest in just how many US soldiers have died in Afghanistan because they were denied proper aerial support or the right to fire on their assailants under McChrystal and Petraeus's Rules of Engagement, which put the focus on appeasing Muslims, over the lives of American boys on the front line.

But like the Constitution, the bodies of American soldiers must burn, in the name of Muslim sensitivities.

In 1987, the National Endowment for the Arts partially funded Piss Christ, an image of a crucifix in urine. Two decades later in 2007, a Koran in a Pace University toilet triggered a 10 month investigation (in New York City, few murder cases are investigated half that long) and finally led to the arrest of one Stanislav Shmulevich on Hate Crime charges. Piss Christ, you see is a work of art. But Piss Koran is a hate crime. Similarly burning the Christian Bible soothes Muslim sensitivities. Burning the Koran inflames them. Killing US soldiers makes Muslims feel good. Killing Muslim terrorists inflames their sensitivities.

The Pace University case, in which a Muslim NYPD detective was assigned to pursue a student for a violation of Muslim law, served as a warning that the media chatter at Time, USA Today and CNN about making burning the Koran into a hate crime should not be taken lightly. Under the Constitution, burning the Koran is completely legal. But the Islamists and their Leftist allies have no regard for the Constitution. No more than they do for the lives of US soldiers or the dead at Ground Zero. They prefer Islamic law, with all its concomitant tyranny and brutality, over the freedoms and values of Americans.

Why do the hate the Constitution of ours so much? Because it is premised on legal equality and self-government, two sets of values anathema to the left and Islam. Under Islamic law, Christians, Jews, Hindus and all others are inferior to Muslims. Women are inferior to men. Koranic experts are superior to ordinary Muslims. First wives are superior to second wives. And so on it goes, a pyramid of discrimination and segregation, sanctioned and approved by Allah, Mohammed and Islam.

Under Islamic law, the sensitivities of Muslims trump the rights of non-Muslims. That is why in the Muslim world, no church or synagogue was allowed to be taller than a mosque. The Twin Towers which dared to be one of the world's tallest buildings, had to be knocked down to make way for Muslim skyscrapers in Dubai and Malaysia. Such is the arrogance and brutality of the Islamic worldview. And such are the horrors that it gives birth to.

Today at Ground Zero, a man did burn the Koran. He gave no interviews, only to say; "Americans should never be afraid to give their opinion". Such a view is not favored by Islam and the Liberal media, which is very determined that people should be afraid to give their opinions. And this last week has been a tremendous exercise in just that. In intimidating Americans. In intimidating America itself, with the threat of 1.5 billion Muslim sensitivities inflamed into a killing rage. Yet again.

But these handful of pages from the Koran were not the first thing burned at Ground Zero. Nine years ago, thousands of human beings were burned alive in the name of the Koran at this place. Pages from their books, their Rolodexes, their memos and their family photographs flew burning into the air, taking wing over the city and drifting down to the place where Imam Rauf and his gang of grinning henchmen would like to erect their symbol of contempt for the dead. The Muslim world did not tremble at the sensitivities of 300 million Americans when they burned 3,000 people at this spot. Like Fareed Zakaria, they either did not care, or they grinned in triumph, and danced in the streets.

Now when the moderate Muslims crawl out of their sewers to warn us that burning the Koran will lead to murder-- all they manage to do is show off their sick and hateful values. A value system that places a higher priority on printed pages than on the lives of non-Muslims. Such a value system cannot and must not be allowed to impose its will on the people of a free nation. Not on this sacred day, and not on any day. Ever.

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comments:

> The same media which has consistently opposed a Constitutional amendment that bans flag burning (generally because they tend to agree with the flag burners),

In this case opposition to a flag burning amendment, though most likely by sheer accident if "the media" is in fact opposed to it, is entirely correct.

The third commandment states in short: God is not a thing. Neither is freedom or justice or liberty, which the flag may be said to represent. In itself, the flag is cloth. "Who steals my purse steals trash." What it represents is of value, and cannot be destroyed by symbolic acts or acts of vandalism against it. If destruction of idols is acceptable, then so is the destruction of flags.

To digress for a moment, please recognize that I do not advocate the destruction of graven images, a la bin Laden and the ancient Buddha statues. Or the burning of flags. Have never done either in my life. But on principle I hold with President Sheppard, that American citizenship is hard and upholding the Constitution requires accepting and even defending the right of a person to scream out in the marketplace of ideas those concepts which you might spend a lifetime opposing. Including the right to burn the US flag, however spiteful and malicious and mis-guided that action or actor might in fact be.

Point being -- you have plenty of ammo in your sack. No need to stand up a strawman like "the media" to succeed in your argument(s). Keep on.

I'm so glad somebody was caught burning the Koran today. I think we should make it a yearly event. I'm going to burn one next year.

Who knows what happen to the Florida pastor. He is just a little guy in a little church. I hope he was bought off or something, certainly he could use the income and he deserves something for his good idea, if nothing else.

Thank you sir for stating so eloquently what I've been feeling but have fallen short in conveying! I've forwarded the link to this page to many people and I still have hope people will see the truth and understand this insane reality we are living in today! Why don't people see it? I find it, quite simply, frightening and alarming. I'm feeling somewhat hopeless regarding the general population today. Will people ever wake up to see the blatant hypocrisy? Will people ever again decide to stand up for whats right? Not for what they are TOLD is right by groups and entities filled with hate and contempt for the very people they are intimidating, bullying and brainwashing! Where have our voices gone? We must speak up! Thank you again!

Burn people not hateful books is what the media is saying in so many words. And to think just nine years ago reporters were being fired for expressing anything even remotely anti-American.

What could be more anti American than indulging Muslims and empowering them?

They accuse us of Islamophobia. Well, a phobia is an irrational fear. After the murder of 3,000 Americans our fear is indeed rational. So too is our sense of outrage.

A bit OT but I'm going somewhere with this---there was an episode of the TV show The Practice years ago. One of the characters was sexually abused by a dentist. Everyone in the law firm kept relatively quiet because they thought their abused colleague was ashamed and scared,

She wasn't. She was furious and wanted the SOB arrested.

What many liberals are accusing us of is Islamophobia. It's not. We have every right to be furious.

That pastor had every right to burn the Koran. If Muslims wanted to counter it by burning a new testament fine, except they don't burn books, they burn people.

I keep thinking of the Tagar stanza of Shir Betar, especially in light of this Koran burning incident.

How did we get to having to only care about the sensibilities of Muslims and not Americans or anyone else? How are they always the victims?

How could it be that all the government did to bridge build with the Muslim world would come to nothing just because one unknown pastor threatened to burn the Koran? Everyone in government no matter what political persuasion (Sarah Palin chimed in too) was afraid of this pastor doing this. So the real lie is that though our leaders Republican and Democrat tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, they don't really believe it. They know it is not and never was and never will be. They just don't want us to know that. It was unpleasant to watch our political leaders on both sides come down on one American's right to freedom of speech. We need leaders to stand up for the constitution and for Americans to express themselves protected by the freedom of speech.

Westboro church who supports the ground zero mosque burned the koran on 9-11. Perhaps you need religious nuts to stand up to religious nuts.

He showed us that the West is run by paper tigers. Corrupt paper tigers who have been bought by the house of $aud or sissies and wimps; from Ban Ki Moon to Hassan Obamam to the mayor of Gainesville, Fla.

I will not even discuss the media. They are irrelevant.

But does the West deserve it? Possibly. The baby boomers are all fat and worried about their health now that most of their businesses are teetering on bankruptcy if their banks demanded immediate payment.

The tragic thing is that these cowards (especially the jews who should know better) are not going to resolve anything but force this battle onto their children and grand children the same way they are not going to resolve their public debts.

BTW, that liar of liars, Colin Powell, who tried to sell the world of WMDs, Hassan Obama is now selling the mosk at GZ. Does this corrupt bureaucrat have a spine? We all know that he recieved a purple porsche from the house of $aud amongst other things.

What makes any Holy Book sacred is the contents of that book. Burning a physical copy does not change the contents. Muslims and non-Muslims need to consider the contents of the Quran and decide objectively if the words are truly "Sacred". You can tell a tree (and an ideology) by its fruit.

Obama was so upset and angry that a pastor was threatening to burn a koran.

And yet, the US army burnt Bibles in May 2009, i.e., when Obama was the CinC of the US armed forces.

Burning Bibles is not something Americans, particularly ones in the armed forces are likely to do. Advice must have been sought on this issue of what to do, and gone right up the chain of command. So did Obama give consent to the burning of Bibles? If he is a Christian, as he says he is, I cant see any Christian willingly burning Bibles or giving an order to do so.

Even if he did'nt, as he is the CinC, he must bear the responsibility.

It is simply just another excuse to go wild and run amok. It is something that has gone on for thousands of years.American leaders are frozen with fear. They are afraid of threats when there is no real comparison in power. Its sadder than sad really.

An outstanding essay. It shows the shallowness of what passes as thought among the liberal and media elite.

I sense a growing resolve among Americans to resist Islam and to finally override political correctness to tell the truth: Islam is evil. Islam killed 3,000 of our citizens nine years ago. Islam deserves no sensitivity or deference. Islam must be held accountable for the millions killed since it came into existence.

Thank you so much for this well-written and expertly argued essay. I will link.

…” used to Bridge building and outreach between Muslims and others” , one Newspaper here in Vienna/Austria had the comment of a muslima who said that the mooseque would aim this lofty purpose. Well especially in the USA there have been many Events to bridge the gulf between different religions in “interfaith Conferences” or inter-religious Dialog. So, even without this moossque this goal is already being accomplished, of course the result might be questionable. But the fact is, if Muslim leaders wanted REALLY be involved in interfaith work, the opportunity is there, even without the moosque. ← misspelling on purpose.

I am putting my faith in Hashem and in the power of a people to rise up and defend their rights; all rights--human rights, civil rights, rights to freedom of expression; and most importantly--the right to vote.

For the time being the government is still intact that we can restore it through political activism.

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I'll admit that in the days and weeks immediately after 9/11 there was some minor backlash against Muslims--some derogatory comments, pushing Muslim women etc. but there were also Americans to protect these women and offers to accompany them when they went shopping (where were their own men?)

But that minor backlash didn't rise to the level of persecution some liberals are crying, and using to justify this constant and self destructive appeasement.

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ChrisLA is absolutely right about the holiness of a sacred book. You do need to look at the fruit.

The fruit of the Koran is rotten.

Ironic...there is a verse about fruit in the song I chose for my 9/11 memorial.

A mosque at the 911 ground zero would be like a memorial to Americans at the Hiroshima ground zero. It would be comparable to affixing a swastika to a Jewish holocaust memorial. The intent to build a mosque near where the twin towers once stood shows us the mean streak and warns of even worst trouble ahead.

Best damn piece I've read on the current topic this weekend. Unfortunately I can see the likes of Bloomberg and his ilk bending over to kiss the ground rather then defending our constitution and the 1st amendment. Its good to see Americans waking up and speaking out against our agressors.

Exactly, Anonymous. It would also be like building a headquarters for the Aryan Nation two blocks from the Oklahoma federal building.

And if the Muslims were the peaceful, understanding people the media is making them out to be, they'd be sensitive to this.

Nobody is blaming each and every Muslim across the country for what happened on 9/11 but at the same time we can't ignore the fact that Muslims perpetrated the mass murder of 3,000 Americans of all religions.

It's about tact and genuine sensitivity; empathy for the victims, which includes each and every resident of NYC who must look at that reminder of the 19 killers.

Why don't they just erect a Muslim 9/11 killer version on Mount Rushmore?

I'm where Psst off Anonymous is. I feel exasperated at the lack of inaction. But at the same time I realize the importance of just pounding the message out.

The media has picked sides and is no longer just reporting news, but selecting and guiding how we should think about things and act in regards to things. Major chutzpah! ....major power!!

Its like Americans have to get out of their Paradise (which has caused them to "grow fat and kick" -as in kickin it) of distraction and realize that action is required.

A funny thought, I think we do need the physical body to hold spiritual/mental ideas -like a bag. And the idea that America carried (in the beginning) was lofty enough that a body grown fat and kicking can't hold.

I like that it seems that America is waking up (I hope I"m correct there), but I think that for more ppl to wake up, I wonder if action is required. Some physical "work out" like the pastor wanted to do. It doesn't have to be that dramatic, but something physical.

With this sentence, you hit the nail right on its head:"It's as if on Holocaust Memorial Day, the key topic of discussion was not the murder of 6,000,000 Jews, but a protester who wanted to get his Bic lighter close to Mein Kampf".

And here's another bulls-eye:"The Twin Towers which dared to be one of the world's tallest buildings, had to be knocked down to make way for Muslim skyscrapers in Dubai and Malaysia".

Phyllis Chesler wrote an excellent article about this issue. She and you said what I've been thinking ever since I heard about the controversy of this pastor planning a Koran burning. In the Muslim world and even among the so called moderate Muslims where is the outrage over the 3000 dead on 9/11? Where is the outrage over Christian and Hindu girls in other countries being kidnapped and forcibly converted? Their parents are told that the girls are Muslim now and so they have no recourse, no way of getting their daughters back. Where is the outrage over the slaughter of Christians and other non Muslims in Sudan? I could go on forever. Like you said, they are more concerned about the printed page than they are the lives of non-Muslims. Human life, whether it be an animist in deepest darkest Africa; a pregnant Jewish mom in Israel; or a Christian in Pakistan is far more valuable than any so called holy book.

I don't really agree with the pastor's decision to burn the Koran, but I understand why he planned it. I think he's done more harm now by backing down. It just gives the Islamists more ammunition against us. They kill and pillage every day; they're just looking for excuses to cause more misery. It's not really about religious freedom, it's about the Muslim world dictating to us here in America what we can say, think or express about Islam or Muhammad.

The piss Christ "work of art" was a great example of the double standard of the left. If Christians followed the example of the Islamists how many innocent people would have died. Christians and Jews (well I guess everyone else in the world except Muslims) recognize that it is not our place to exact revenge against those who hurt our sensibilities or "insult" our religion. God doesn't need us to defend him. We defend his name by living for him, not by causing mayhem. I've always felt that the Muslims sensitivity about insulting their prophet is idolatrous in itself. After all he was only a man, just as the Old Testament prophets were only men. Nobody worries about offending or insulting, say Isaiah or Jeremiah.

One more thought and I'll shut up. I wanted to say something about "Hart"s" comments about the flag burning. My take on that is that you were not addressing whether or not it is correct to burn the flag, only that the media was using a double standard when it comes to flag burning and Koran burning.

O.K. shuttin up now. Sorry this was so long. Have a great week everybody.

I also think the pastor did more damage by not burning the book after stating that he would.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I suspect that the fight between America (well the world really) vs Islam (or however it should be stated) requires all available cells in the body to make it a good fight.

The pastor burning the book is like him using his bad side (anger, hatred?, pride?) to serve the same purpose his good side would have wanted (release from fear, freedom from dhimmitude, etc). Maybe its not such a bad thing?

Also, if he had burned the book, it would have been like turning the whole nation on a dime. The whole influence that that tiny pastor had would have symbollicly turned the people from being on the defense to being on the offense --no enemy would want that!

I'm slapping the next person who tells me, "We need to show the Muslims that we're better than they are by letting them build the mosque". Besides the implicit bigotry, since when does modeling good behavior change the value system of people who condone savagery? I say, sure, let's show them we're better, by building a new world trade center much taller than the last. Fabulous essay, Daniel.